Stickman Weekly, September 21, 2025

 

 

Mystery Photo

Last week’s photo was kind of obscure so I was impressed that a good number of you got it right. It was taken on Sukhumvit Road, between the Asoke intersection and Soi 23. I was facing the Asoke direction / the direction of Terminal 21.

This week’s photo features a favourite spot of mine in downtown Bangkok.

 

 

Stick’s Inbox – The Best Emails From The Past Week

Not the bargain it was.

Thailand is definitely not as cheap nor as good value for money as it once was. Probably stating the obvious there. Being a Brit, the days of 70 baht to the pound are long gone and we’re lucky to get 45 baht now. However, I will definitely return in December for a month. Whatever anybody else wants to do is obviously up to them. 20 years ago I used to fly with China Airlines in business class from the UK for £899. Next trip I’ll be flying with Emirates in economy and paying £1,700. Business class for the same trip with Emirates would be around £4,000. How times have changed.

Stop complaining!

The price of everything is going up everywhere. Tell your readers to stop complaining. Thailand is still the most fun you can have anywhere!

Thailand is wonderland!

Regarding your question about the value of Thailand and rising costs, I offer my perspective as a younger guy. I’m 34, and a Thailand newbie. I get the sense that I am a fair bit outside of your main readership demographic so perhaps my perspective might be worthwhile. I have done two trips, spring of 2024 and 2025. I enjoyed both trips immensely and plan to return again next year. I understand that the prices for most things have risen steadily since Covid, but I still find Thailand to be incredible value. In my home country, the activities on offer in Bangkok and Pattaya are ridiculously expensive, the equivalent of 20K – 25k THB just for a girl who is a plain Jane, and double that for one who is actually attractive enough to spend an entire night with you. Also, because it is illegal here (and heavily policed), it is quite dangerous. Hotels in major nightlife areas easily cost 5x what they cost in Thailand. Drinks in those nightlife areas are also 5x as expensive. Transportation / ride shares are 10x more expensive. If I wanted to go on an equivalent two-week blowout bender in a major party area in my home country, doing the same things I do in Thailand, it would easily cost me more than half a year’s salary – and I make pretty decent money. I understand that my circumstances are fairly specific, and many Thailand veterans are from countries where these types of experiences are cheaper, safer, and more accessible, and thus Thailand may not seem as attractive by comparison. I recognize that many expats may have moved / retired to Thailand 10+ years ago without anticipating such cost increases and are now feeling their budgets constricting pretty tightly. I also realize that those who have been vacationing there for a decade or more and experienced it when it was more under the radar understandably long for those golden days from their memories. But to me, the stereotypical two-week millionaire, Thailand is wonderland! The most addictive thing about Bangkok and Pattaya is not simply the girls, the cheap booze, the partying etc, but the electrifying feeling of FREEDOM that I have just walking around, knowing the plethora of experiences I can engage in on a whim ,and at a cost that I personally find to be not just reasonable, but a bargain! You see, those golden days that today’s Thailand vets and expats reflect on, are what I am currently experiencing RIGHT NOW. Perhaps in 20 years I will be yet another one of the bitter veterans telling tales of how much better things were back in the 2020s, but right now, in the present moment, I am absolutely in love with everything about Thailand! I imagine that many of your readers may disagree with me, and I completely understand their point of view. I just figured I’d play Devil’s Advocate and explain my contrasting opinion.

How to save money in Bangkok 101.

I think the last time I went to a barber was before Covid, in a little hole in the wall on Petchaburi Road, Soi 3. I cut my own hair. The difference between a good haircut and a bad one is about two weeks. I can do a shitty one myself and not have to fork out the money.

Tequila.

Your mention of ‘tequila’ sometimes actually being water reminded me of the time I went to one of your favoured bars in Pattaya and the girl came to the table with a glass of ….. 7-Up! What gave it away was the bubbles! Silly girl. I reported it to the mamasan who took it off the bill and warned the girl not to do it again. Maybe the mamasan knew of the scam, maybe not, but obviously the server did. Since then, I will playfully sniff the ‘tequila’ to check its authenticity – but even then, I was once in a Cowboy bar, a place I was a regular customer for well over a decade, and the tequila smelt very ‘mild’ and was probably watered down. The rule should be ‘Trust no-one’.

Checkpoints and Farangs.

I got pulled over at an army checkpoint. In the past, whenever the car I’m in has been stopped by police, when seeing a foreigner they have just waved the car on through. Not this time as it was me that they were interested in. They wanted to see my passport to make sure I hadn’t snuck across the border. This was in Sa Kaeo, on the way home from Buriram. Fortunately my passport was in a bag right in front of me, so after a minute or two we were back on the road. There have been times in the past where I’ve traveled between provinces without my passport. Never again!

 

 

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

The ill-fated Las Vegas on Soi Nana closed a few weeks ago, and a new bar sprang up in its place this week. Ok, so perhaps not a new bar per se, but a new bar in that spot. Rumours Beer Bar which was previously located on Soi 8 and before that operated on various other sois including, from memory (?), soi 22. Soi Nana is probably the best location for a beer bar so fingers crossed for success.

Following renovations, Mandarin in Nana Plaza reopens tonight. The interior has been completely revamped. The downstairs area has been rebuilt with a new stage. A new VIP lounge concept like what is found directly opposite in Lace Lounge is being developed upstairs, but is not ready yet.

Down the road in Soi Cowboy, the much-needed renovations begin tomorrow on Mandarin’s sister bar, Shark, which is part of the same French-owned group. Why do I say “much-needed”? Shark in Soi Cowboy had a great bunch of really attractive ladies when I was in town. And the bar’s frontage was completely redone several months ago and looks fantastic. But the interior of the bar feels – and smells – stale. Given how quiet it has been in the bars the last couple of weeks, now is the perfect time to renovate. Expect Shark to reopen in about a month, before high season rolls around.

A few clicks away in Patpong soi 2, another French-owned and operated bar, Bada Bing, is also closed for refurbishment. Out front, all of the lights have been stripped away and it sounds like the entire bar, inside and out, is being upgraded. A sign outside says the Bada Bing beauties have moved over to Radio City on Patpong soi 1, which is run by the same people.

The average person viewing the photo below would probably just nod and grunt something like, “A ha”, if you mentioned that it was the rainy season. But show this photo to a Stickman reader and you’re more likely to get an “Ugh!” That’s because Stickman readers know that’s not rain. Yep, filth is still leaking from the pipes below Soi Cowboy – and it’s clear for all to see when it doesn’t rain, as it didn’t on Friday night. Planning a visit to Soi Cowboy? Wear your wellies!

 

 

Showtime, the new ladyboy cabaret bar on Soi Cowboy, plans to open this coming Friday. It will be an elaborate operation with a new sound system and fancy new lighting / spotlight system installed this past week. The format will be unlike any other bars on Soi Cowboy, with a ladyboy cabaret show repeated every half hour from 8:00 PM through until closing. It’s not my intention to piss on a new bar’s parade, but industry insiders have commented on what they believe are various design flaws in the bar. The stage is small and appears more suited to chrome poles and girls who cling to it and barely move, than for performers who prance around. The ceiling is low and word is that some the performers’ headwear hits the support beams. And some of the pillars in the bar obstruct the view of the stage. These hardly sound like trivial issues and some creativity may be needed to remedy them.

Showtime has generated a lot of chatter and no shortage of head-scratching with one respected industry insider saying that while he expects it to make it through the high season, he wonders how will it fare when April rolls around. Will a ladyboy cabaret that doesn’t appeal to regular Soi Cowboy punters make it through a low season as bad as this year’s? Normally, I wish a new bar well, but the truth is I feel much the same as others – this bar is taking up space which could be better used as a conventional Soi Cowboy bar, or revert back to its previous format as a pub. Forgive my cynicism.

Showtime is located in the space that was previously Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy and, finally, details have leaked about the reasons for Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy’s closure. The bar had been paying discounted rent since Covid. Earlier this year, the landlord said Covid was finished and the rent had to be adjusted. He came up with an amortised monthly rent of 500K baht / month, which is well beyond current market rates for a space that size on Soi Cowboy. With that, Stumble Inn’s partners made the decision to close.

 

 

There’s a certain romance when it’s raining outside and you’re stuck in a quiet Soi Cowboy bar and the centre of attention. It’s now you who is in demand and the pressure to buy lady drink after lady drink fades away. But the romance of the rainy season is soon forgotten when it comes time to leave the bar. It’s only a few metres between bars, and not much more than 50 metres to either end of the soi – but you only need to be out in the rain for a few seconds to get drenched. And it’s made worse by the awnings at some Soi Cowboy bars which extend out on to the soi, providing protection from the rain for those who wish to perch on the patio and watch the scene outside. In the peak of the rainy season, the rainwater runs off the awning like a waterfall in full flow – and you have to run through that waterfall to get anywhere! The solution? I’d like to say an umbrella but sometimes that’s not enough. There’s a reason some prefer to do their rainy season partying undercover at Nana Plaza.

It’s not just the bars suffering this low season. Visa agencies, realtors and even some online businesses can’t wait for the rains to end and the high season to roll around. Speaking of realtors, one real estate agency which handles medium-term rentals for foreigners commented this week that many of its regulars who escape winter at home and head to Thailand each year are non-committal about when, or even whether they will return. The chatter has already started about how the next high season will be….and some are rather pessimistic.

A reminder that the biggest gogo bar party of the year will take place next Saturday, September 27, on the top floor of Nana Plaza where Billboard hosts its 10th anniversary party. This year’s anniversary celebration promises to be the biggest yet. For fans of the nightlife, there are two events you need to experience at least once: Nanapong dance contests (which I hope you experienced already because there won’t be another), and Billboard anniversary parties. It will be a night not to miss!

 

 

One of the downsides of the bar industry today is thirsty ladies who pester customers for lady drink after lady drink. One reader commented on this phenomenon this week saying it was analogous to being in a casino – you spend a lot of money in a short period of time and you might end up a winner, but you’ll probably end up a loser. Are the ladies facing financial pressures? No, it’s simply that the ladies’ business model has changed. This is nothing new, but the concern is just how widespread this has become. Being asked to buy a drink for a lady in a busy gogo bar in record time is par for the course. If you don’t buy it, the next guy will. But more of you are telling me that the same thing happens in some quiet, out-of-the-way beer bars. Just like in the chrome pole bars, ladies request a tequila, down it in seconds, ask for another and if it’s not forthcoming they slink away! Is it any wonder that some bars promote the fact that their ladies aren’t pushy? With that said, I am never quite sure whether the ladies genuinely aren’t pushy or not!

Part of the problem is the very idea of tequila as a lady drink (or any shot that can be downed in a second or two). When did tequila lady drinks become so popular with the girls? I asked Mister Nana (previously known as Dave The Rave) if he could remember whether tequila lady drinks were a thing when he first started managing gogo bars in the late ’90s. He doesn’t think they became a popular lady drink until some years later. Before around 2002 or 2003, the girls’ business model was all about getting barfined, preferably long-time. And if the guy was a tourist, she would do all she could to convince him to barfine her for many days (that’s one reason the ladies were more enthusiastic in bed in the past) so she would be guaranteed a payday for X number of days. But the business model changed as girls realised they could make good money from lady drinks alone – and a drink that can be consumed quickly meant they could ask for another…..and another and make even more money. And so tequila became popular as a lady drink.

 

 

As discussed in recent columns, in some bars the “tequila” served to ladies in shot glasses as a lady drink is actually water. (A customer will always be served tequila, not water.) As I wrote some years ago in the column when this same topic came up, I am firmly of the opinion that the whole lady drink system is flawed. The bars for Thai men have it right whereby customers pay a fixed fee which gives them a set amount of time for a lady to sit with them. These ladies will often drink whatever the Thai men are drinking, often whiskey + mixer. Traditionally, the issue for some punters was that the idea of paying a set fee for a lady’s time makes things feel transactional and less like a “date”. Turn back the clock, and many punters used to think of the whole bar experience from meeting a lady in a bar, to buying her drinks, to taking her away for a bite to eat / drinks in another bar and eventually back to one’s room as “a date”. Today, it’s all very transactional anyway – so I don’t see why paying a lady a set fee to sit with you for a period of time would be a problem for customers. It would be much more transparent and you’d know what you’re getting. With that said, I can’t imagine ladies would like the idea of a fee being paid for a set amount of their time as it would likely see their income plummet (unless a premium was charged for their time).

Tequila as a lady drink is problematic given the quantity some ladies consume. How common is liver disease amongst bar ladies? I am aware of a couple of ladies who died due to liver failure. Both worked in Soi Cowboy, both were big drinkers and both were tiny. Conversely, I know of quite a number of foreigners in Thailand who have succumbed to liver failure over the years, including 3 in the past 3 years. Mister Nana said to me a while back that it’s amazing more of the guys we know from the bars don’t have liver problems. I added ‘yet’!”

 

 

Down in Pattaya, a friend says Pattaya it’s as quiet there as he has ever seen it – and he has known Pattaya since the mid ’90s / been living there for close to 25 years.

A friend was surprised by the number of Russians he saw at Jomtien this week. Could this be the beginning of the return of the Russians before the next high season? It’s too early to say – and it does feel a little early in the year for their return – but as someone who lives locally, he has noted a clear increase in their number.

Rum Runner on Soi Buakhao will celebrate Earth, Wind and Fire Day, tonight, September 21st, by playing non-stop disco classics all night long. And if that’s not reason enough to get you there, it’s happy hour through until 10 PM. If laid-back bars with reasonable drinks prices, friendly girls and older music appeal, stop by Rum Runner and check it out.

A white guy has made a song and dance about how he was refused entry to one of Pattaya’s Indian bars. Said fellow claims he was well-presented and was turned away simply because he was white – or at least because he was not Indian. I guess some of Pattaya’s Indian bars wish to accommodate Indians only. Fair enough, I personally don’t see a problem with that. Given that many bars popular with white guys have treated Indian customers poorly for so long and refused entry to Indians, it’s a hoot that the shoe is on the other foot. It’s worth noting that the reasons for refusing entry to those of other ethnicities often comes with pretty good reasons. Take the case of Japanese bars on Soi Thaniya, most of which refuse entry to non-Japanese. It’s primarily because the way bars operate is not understood by non-Japanese. The prices are very high. Every table (or room) might get a compulsory plate of nuts, another of fruit, neither of which is ordered and neither of which you may want. They could be billed at a few hundred baht each. Farangs often make a song and dance about that sort of thing whereas the Japanese understand it, and accept it. In the case of the Indian discos on Walking Street, some have drinks prices around double what you will pay in the better gogo bars. Again, many farangs won’t accept that so perhaps it’s better to simply refuse entry to non-Indians rather than have to deal with problems later?

 

 

Walking Street’s newest giant bar is due to open tomorrow. Mafia The Club is located next door to Insomnia. It’s not known if this is another Indian club, or not.

Many fans of Pattaya’s nightlife like to keep in touch with what’s happening there by watching videos on YouTube. Pattaya bar owner and popular YouTuber Nick Dean commented in a video this week that he’d been having trouble posting videos which featured aspects of the nightlife. Nick has long struck me as someone who has a good idea of what someone who resides in Thailand can and can’t say, and his videos are hardly what you’d call spicy. But just what is – or perhaps rather what is not – allowed on YouTube isn’t so clear these days. Making matters worse, there’s an element of subjectivity (or is it that the AI / algorithms are confused?) and rules may not be enforced evenly. So while one person’s videos might be rejected on certain grounds, another person’s featuring similar material might be approved. 20 years ago, similar things happened with the Google AdSense program which paid handsomely for advertising space on websites. Over the course of a year or so, Thailand-centric websites with nightlife content received the dreaded email informing them that due to content violations (which was wide-ranging and essentially covered almost anything naughty nightlife-focused), they could no longer use Google AdSense. YouTube is owned by Google which likes everyone to know just how woke it is – so nightlife content being flagged comes as no surprise. Just going off on a tangent for a moment, I asked Google AI this question: is Google woke? It came back with the following claptrap: “Woke” has become a politically charged term with multiple meanings, making a simple “yes” or “no” answer impossible. Whether Google is considered “woke” depends entirely on which definition of the term a person uses and which actions they focus on.” I guess AI needs more work! A friend mentioned that he hasn’t seen videos for two or three weeks from someone who frequently strolls around Asoke, Nana and the length of Soi 4 and posts a few times a week. It looks like the writing is on the wall for those who publish videos on YouTube with any sort of naughty nightlife slant.

In last week’s column I included a photo from Soi Pattayaland 2 and asked which year it was taken. The responses ranged from 2000 to 2013. It was taken in……2003.

 

 

The Took Lae Dee diner at the front of the Sukhumvit soi 7 branch of Foodland has a bunch of photos near the cashier shaming those who have dined and dashed. There’s not a Thai amongst them. The hall of fame – or should that be the hall of shame? – features a young white guy, a Middle Eastern family and a couple of Indian dudes (who could, in fairness, just as easily be from any country in the Indian sub-continent or the Middle East). Food at Took Lae Dee is very reasonably priced. If you can’t afford to eat at Foodland / you’re doing a runner after eating, you probably shouldn’t be in Thailand.

If you come and go from Thailand on visa waiver stamps but are essentially resident in the country, you really should bite the bullet and get a long-term visa. I mention this because a friend was stopped recently after coming and going on visa waiver / 60-day stamps. He was ushered off to a room, questioned about what he is doing in Thailand and told that they would allow entry this time – but next time he had to have a proper visa otherwise he would be declined entry. He’d been coming and going on visa waiver stamps for less than a year. There are many different visa options available – and while I don’t necessarily recommend it, you can always speak to an agent if you find it all too hard. In Thailand, you should always play the long game. Coming and going on visa-waiver stamps while considering Thailand as your place of residence and “home” is not a long-term strategy.

It must be 15 years since I first featured the scribblings of the one I termed, “The Mad Professor”. Since then, he’s been featured in this column many times, on numerous websites, in YouTube videos and has even been interviewed on Thai television. We’ve not had any reports of him recently but I am pleased to report that he’s still at it, with a bunch of his scribblings sighted this week in the Udom Suk area.

 

 

Thailand-Related Links & News Articles

Quote of the week comes from a friend, “Thai security thugs are no better than motorcycle guys on the corner, they just have better uniforms.”

From The Stickman Archives comes a weekly column from 2018 which opened with The Life Of Larry.

YouTube video of the week from Bangkok Pat is a content-rich look at Bangkok’s Old Town.

A BBC doco showing the dark side of Thailand has prompted calls by prominent tourism industry figures for reform in Pattaya.

There’s a growing realisation that Thai banks have made a mess in their effort to combat scammers.

Airline and airport rating website Skytrax now rates Suvarnabhumi Airport as a 4-star facility.

Tom Tuohy discusses the need for retirees in Thailand to have a plan B.

Thailand has seen a 7.1% drop in visitors in the year to date.

In Phuket, police have arrested four Brits for the robbery of a 2.3 million baht watch from an American tourist.

PBS’s A Local’s Roast: The real ‘Dark Side’ of Thailand totally outdid the BBC documentary of a similar name.

 

 

Closing Comments

So much for taking a week off. I was looking forward to a nice Sunday brunch in town with the other half, followed by a wander along the beachfront before returning home and starting a new book. A good plan, but it wasn’t to be. On Friday, a friend mentioned that it looked like this week would be a lot busier than next news-wise, so this week’s column was hurried together. Will there be a column next week? It’s 50 : 50 as I might finally get to take a week off.

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com